Making politicians accountable to their voters, than parties
Everybody is talking about elections! It’s not only local government polls but also general elections and in some instances, presidential polls. Apart from the enormous cost of conducting elections, for whose benefit are these elections?
For a long time since independence and since we were students, all of us wanted to get involved in our country’s politics for the wellbeing of our country since everything was being controlled by politics, even during our primary, secondary and university education.
We remember very well in the 1950’s and 1960’s how our elders got involved in politics, spent their own money wisely, just to serve the people. Those who could afford and were genuinely interested in serving the people sacrificed their own comfort and living styles in this pursuit.
What has happened today? Almost everyone in politics is in a mighty hurry (to get power and acquire wealth) and the intense competition leads to violent behaviour, use of foul and bad language, and makes a mockery of themselves while getting elected by the people.
Maybe the “First past the post winner” system being changed into proportional representation in 1977 resulted in more violent politics as political parties and candidates had to spend more funds and resources to compete and get elected. So what did the honourable MPs do during most of their time? Thinking of ways and means of amassing wealth to cover their electioneering costs which led to greedy parliamentarians being interested only in money-making deals and engaging in more corrupt practices. Instead of being “The Obedient servant” of the people they became their “Lord and Master”, relegating the public to become their “Servant”.
Even under the proposed new mixed system of “First past the post” plus “Proportional representation” we cannot expect much improvement unless all parties implement a strict code of ethics and monitoring of all their candidates and even members. But will this ever happen?
In today’s system the party comes before the voter’s needs. The elected candidate is not answerable to the people on whose vote he gets elected but only to his party.
For playing by party rules, MPs get salaries, pensions, many allowances including duty free limousines, free quarters and all other benefits. Ministers get much more.
While Sri Lanka’s cabinet keeps increasing irrespective of Constitutional safeguards, in developed countries the number of ministers in the US for example is 24, China – 27, Russia – 17, Japan – 19 and India – 22.
People are also aware of increases made in the local bodies as well to accommodate more candidates, going up from 4,000 to over 8,000 doubling state expenses with the tax-payers money. The so-called carnival of Sri Lankan politics continues at the expense of the poor masses.
What needs to be done?
Conduct research to ascertain how decent democracies work. How people’s representatives are elected and how they are held accountable to the voters.
Civil society organisations must propose solutions to discipline our “duly elected” representatives (MPs) and introduce a new political culture to save our democratic traditions and good governance in the country.
My thinking as a simple citizen observing our political history and the behaviour of our politicians is that we need to introduce a new law providing for dismissing or sacking representatives who do not perform and deliver on their own election pledges and promises after allowing a reasonable time for deliverance. In other words voters should have the power to unseat the elected through a public petition. Only such a bold step would discipline the present MPs who are trying to deceive and hoodwink the people and improve only their lot all the time.
From what we see on TV on parliamentary proceedings, TV talk shows and also other media, disgusting dramas are enacted by politicians which cannot be watched by decent families particularly owing to indecent shouting, use of foul language and bad behavior.
Though political parties can easily enforce strict discipline to arrest this deteriorating situation, it appears the parties are not strong enough or not disciplined to do so.
We may end up in a situation where the public or most people will lose interest in party politics in the future. That maybe the way out. For, if there is direct contact between the candidate and the voter (public) sans political parties, that may be a better development that would lead to a better relationship and understanding between the voter and the elected representative. Such a situation would lead to accountability on the part of the elected representative. The voter is happy, the politician gets to keep his place. Everyone is a winner in this system!